For the small and medium businesses with special SME certificate, the decision announced by the Central Bank Reducing the term to pay for imports from 120 days in four installments to only 60 days in two is nothing new, because these They already had prior authorization to pay within 30 days.
The measure announced by the monetary entity It has the greatest impact on about 250 large firms that historically represent half of the demand for dollarsUnder the current conditions of the Argentine economy, in recession, this is about US$2 billion per month.
Although the new measures impact mostly on that small number of firms, However, businessmen believe that this is something that is going in the right direction.because it anticipates the lifting of the restrictions and that leads to foreign suppliers taking a more positive view of Argentina.
In this regard, the general manager of the Chamber of Importers of the Argentine Republic (CIRA), Fernando Furci, supported the decision announced by the Central Bank to shorten the period for making payments abroad to 60 days. “This is another step towards dismantling the exchange rate restrictions. There is still a long way to go, but it is a positive sign, without a doubt, because it improves the negotiation possibilities of medium and large companies,” Furci explained in a statement. to Scope.
The businessman recalled that “SMEs were already paying in 30 days“from before, so the new decision “is an improvement for a segment of companies that had been in difficulties, because they were in 30, 60, 90 and 120 days”
“Now I know opens a new opportunity to talk with foreign suppliers. “It is a positive sign,” said Furci.
It should be remembered that most small businesses with SME certification could already access dollars to import within a period of 30 days. There is a specific group with that deadline to import essential goods, such as fertilizers. And there were cars and luxury goods that were paid for in 120 days, which will now be 90.
“The good thing is that Everything is being regularized. Historically, if we look at the volume of dollars for import, half of what Argentina consumes is occupied by about 250 companies.he explained. This means that of the average US$4 billion currently imported, in a context of recession, some US$2 billion correspond to this group of large firms.
Furci explained that The rest of the demand for dollars to import is headed by some 20,000 corporate cuits, among which there are also large, medium and small ones.
Although he indicated that “this decision has a positive impact on the big ones” in the long run tends to have a “generally positive” effect. Argentina is in a better position to negotiate with its suppliers abroad. Financial costs will be reduced.
Furci also highlighted that “there is a group of companies that They are SMEs in Argentina but they are subsidiaries of large companies abroad, which even having few employees could not import within 30 days because they could not obtain the SME certificate.” “This group of companies is facilitated,” he explained.
The businessman considered that, based on these improvements, “companies will not import more”, since, as he pointed out, “domestic demand is very low and companies have had two consecutive years of overstocks”.
The view of SMEs
In this regard, the president of the The Argentine Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CAME), Alfredo González, supported the decision of the Central Bank. “In practice, on a daily basis, it is something that we had been asking for when they released the imports of food and cleaning products for supermarkets because we believed that “SMEs should have the same conditions,” González told Ambato.
The businessman said that “this is positive because it is a financial cost that we will not have” although he considered that “the ideal is to return to how we were before” when there was no restriction.
He considered that the restrictions on paying constitute “a financial cost that ends up being charged to the product, which makes it much more expensive” since “you have to pay an interest rate for the financing”.
Even if the situation improves, the head of CAME considered that domestic prices will not fall “but they may stop rising so that we can adjust to the market.”
The measure that favors imports is also complemented by the decision to reduce the PAÍS Tax from September, anticipated by the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo.
“When the tax is removed, 10 or 20 fat wallets will be able to import much more than SMEs. The important thing we ask the government is to have some form of control to prevent so many finished products from being imported because then we could have problems,” he warned.
Source: Ambito
